Biography
Early Life
Born in the English countryside in 1984 (41 years old), I grew up during the 90s in a house with an Apple Mac and internet access. With the Mac not having many games, around the age of 8, I began to teach myself graphic design. My fascination with design continued throughout my teens and became a meaningful source of income. At 18 I spent a gap year in Australia travelling, participating in conservation projects and working as a designer.
At Durham University, in the North of England, I studied Zoology, but spent much of my time involved in theatre, student politics and furthering my design and programming skills. I won election as President of The Students’ Union and spent a year rallying students to successfully campaign and protest against the university to freeze rent increases and provide more funding for student activities.
China Chapter
Craving adventure, after leaving University in July 2007 I booked a flight to Shanghai, China. I studied Mandarin for 3 months then found work at Virtual Village, a China to The West B2C e-commerce startup run by an eccentric older British entrepreneur. In 18 months I worked across almost every area of the business running marketing, web development and even the warehouse. Seeing a troubled future for a tech company run by a founder who didn’t really grasp technology, I felt it was time to leave and found my own company.
I pursued multiple entrepreneurial ventures from bespoke clothing to custom oil paintings, always making use of my design and programming skills. While no venture achieved much success, this was a critical learning period.
Seeking a break from the instability of entrepreneurship, I took a role as an internal consultant at a large international hotel chain where I pioneered the usage of social media and established the first on property digital marketing team. By mid 2013 I had grown tired of the slowness of working in a large MNC, so left to Co-found KAWO with Dutch developer Brian van Damme who shared my passion for building great software.
KAWO
First hand experience of the challenges of managing social media while in previous roles — I saw a clear opportunity to create a SaaS platform for managing China social media. In the early days of KAWO I focused on design and front end development then stepped up to lead the company from 2017 until 2021.
My key contributions during my 10 years at KAWO include:
- Leading product development from minimal viable product to achieve product market fit.
- Building a data driven and customer centric company culture.
- Focused the company on enterprise devising a clear & simple pricing strategy.
- Hired, managed and coached 30+ employees from 12 countries.
- Built the trust required to sell our SaaS solution to many world famous brands
e.g. Nike, NFL, GUCCI, Chanel, US Govt etc. - Established mutually beneficial sales partnerships with global players Hootsuite & Emplifi.
- Grew Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) over 25x from $2.5K in Jan 2017 to $65K in Nov 2021.
- Achieved cash flow breakeven in Dec 2019 putting the company in a good position pre-pandemic.
- Established KAWO as a well known and respected brand in China social media through industry leading content marketing and thought leadership.
Examples of key content:- 2018 Ultimate Guide to WeChat Articles
4,000 downloads & 1,500 printed copies - 2019 China Social Media Data Insights Report
9,000 downloads - 2020 Ultimate China Social Media Cheatsheet
25% increase in WeChat followers - 2020 Ultimate Guide to China Social Media
40,000 downloads, 50,000 views on YouTube - 2022 Ultimate Guide to China Social Media
65,000 downloads
- 2018 Ultimate Guide to WeChat Articles
- Created and delivered many many talks on marketing, product development and entrepreneurship both in English and occasionally Chinese.
In 2021 KAWO raised 10M Series A from Sequoia China & Tiger Global. With the new priority being rapid scale, and the tide in China turning against foreigners, I returned to focus on my core passion — building great product. Shanghai born 李静远 (Lǐ jìng yuǎn) took over the role of CEO, leading the company in a new direction.
The local Chinese CEO took the company in a new direction which didn't align with my values. I made the decision to leave a company I no longer recognised. I'm proud of this decision and so relieved to no longer be associated with the company.
Post China
In June, worn down by the events of the previous 3 years, I left KAWO and China. I returned to Europe to spend much needed time with friends and family. This gave me some much needed time to recover and figure out my next steps.
In January 2026 I began a masters degreee in Artificial Intelligence and Ethics at Northeastern University London. After nearly 20 years in tech and marketing, I'm dismayed at the harms brought by technology.
Meanwhile I am co-writing a book about marketing in China, that will hopefully be published in 2026.